(written by Islander)
Sometimes when I compile these Sunday selections I plan ahead, doing lots of listening days in advance and narrowing the choices to a set before starting to peck out the words. Other times I wing it — listening, picking, and writing as I go, not knowing what the collection will look like until I just run out of time. This is one of those days.
So you could say that today’s collection is far more randomized than would be ideal. But the truth is, they’re always random. I can never listen to everything; I always have to reach a stopping point; and worthy releases always get neglected.
That would cause severe anxiety if I thought this site were the sole filter or funnel for new black and black-ish metal (or metal of any other kind), but of course that’s not true. People discover new music in a multitude of other ways (even if some of those will lead you astray), and eventually I remember that and the shakes go away… eventually.
DEADSPACE (Australia)
Here’s where I started, not really all that random because we know from lots of past experience what Deadspace are capable of doing, and it’s an impressive capability even if the nature of the music hasn’t been entirely foreseeable. In fact, the lack of predictability is itself an asset.
A lazy person would just introduce the following new song by copy/pasting the text from the single’s Bandcamp page, because at that place Deadspace lay out in detail where they’re going, not just with this song but also with the new album (The Dark Enlightenment) that includes it. But being only half-lazy, I’ll include only this excerpt:
The track demonstrates the bombastic monstrosity, hinted on last year’s EP, that Deadspace have re-emerged as. Furious as it is, the track also showcases the band’s obscure and avant-garde output….
That 2023 EP, Unveiling the Palest Truth, did indeed mark a shift in the band’s stylistic proclivities, and this new song “Culminating Chaos” is indeed a bombastic monstrosity, but more than that too.
The song’s swarming riffage, both low and high in the register, creates a vicious and violent spectacle, like a feeding frenzy bent on leaving nothing behind, not even bones. The bass feverishly throbs; the drums maniacally hammer; the jagged-edged vocals roar and howl in a ferocious rage.
The hell-for-leather pace does relent, making way for a layering of more slowly writhing and dismally wailing guitars, and for a dose of heavily rumbling percussion and eerie chime-like tones, like the tolling of bells for all who will be lost in the low-end earthquake.
The song ramps up again, guitars boiling, drums popping, and the voice coming for our throats once more, like some maddened bear.
https://deadspacecollective.bandcamp.com/track/culminating-chaos
https://www.facebook.com/deadspaceaus
ABERRATOR (NEW ZEALAND)
I suppose my next pick wasn’t utterly random either, first because it’s from a forthcoming Dark Descent release and they don’t lead us astray, and second because we get to stay Down Under. And, well, third, I have a pretty good guess about who’s involved in this band based on their initials, even though Aberrator is a new entity.
This song, “Beckoning Tribulation” is the title track to Aberrator‘s debut album. It proceeds in two phases which then become one.
In the first phase, the scarring notes slowly trace a dismal harmony, in keeping with the song’s title. The music crawls like a worm fattened on plague and death, hopeless in its mood, eventually joined by thumping beats, throbbing bass-lines, and ghastly growls and screams.
The song gradually builds toward its second phase, elevating with daunting and dissonant chords and insinuating feverish tremolo’d diseases and swirling arpeggios of agony. As this happens, the vocals become a demonic cacophony of madness.
With a buzzing bridge, the song hits the second phase in full force, with drums ruthlessly hammering and the bass bubbling like superheated magma. The guitars swarm and dart with resurgent freakishness and violence, and the vocals scream and snarl.
Near the end those two phases come together, creating a ravenous and wretched finale.
I’ll also again crib a bit from what appears on the Bandcamp page:
“Beckoning Tribulation is a lens into the human condition, the inevitable decline due to the innate zealotry and hypocrisy within our species,” states N.H. “The triumphant proclamation of the death of god and the impending doom of mankind as it struggles within the vacuum this creates.”
The album comes clad in a masterful gravure/woodcut-style piece from the inimitable mind of Alex Shadrin from Nether Temple Design: “The artwork represents the above concepts. Betrayal hidden with the guise of civility; blades plunged into another’s backs to complete the ouroboros. Murder, cunning and cowardice act in unison as tools of victory and ultimately defeat.”
https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/beckoning-tribulation
https://www.facebook.com/DarkDescentRecords
LYCOPOLIS (Egypt)
Lycopolis have suddenly re-emerged after their 2022 pair of EPs, Amduat Parts 1 and 2. Their new release, Thinite Confederacy, is another EP, this one presenting two new songs plus three bonus tracks. The two new songs are streaming at Bandcamp now.
Lycopolis anchor “Dynasty 00” with an exotically swirling riff melodically rooted in their ancient homeland and executed lo-fi with a ton of fuzz. Once they’ve set that hook, they go adventuring, bringing in some growly but thrashy riffage, and then a storm of thundering, roiling, and screaming sensations.
Lycopolis also create variations on that magnetizing opening riff, switching up the drum patterns but ramping up the delirium and shrieking all the while. They also thrillingly spin the music upward, gloriously whirling like dervishes who’ve achieved levitation.
The other song, “Dynasty 0“, is mid-paced at first, staggering and stalking, with a weirdly wailing guitar revealing its paranormal presence. But this song also evolves significantly, packing in rapidly jabbing heavy metal riffage that will get your head pumping and freaked-out siren-like leads that will get it spinning, as well as seductively psychedelic fretwork maneuvers and blaring chords that sound infernally regal.
Still lo-fi in the production and joined by unhinged screams, the second song turns out to be even more infectious than the first one, which was pretty infectious to begin with.
https://lycopolis.bandcamp.com/album/thinite-confederacy
http://instagram.com/lycopolisband
ASCALAPHA (U.S.)
This next choice was much more randomized than the first three today. The St. Louis-based solo black metal project Ascalapha does have an EP, a split, and a debut album to its name, but I haven’t heard any of those. I was drawn to this new single mainly because of the cover image, and the song’s name — “Mi Alma Se Desvanece” (Spanish for “My Soul Is Fading”).
After being lured in, what I found was music that creates a compelling amalgam of contrasting sensations.
Crusted with distortion, the guitar roughly claws and crawls at first, underpinned by enormous heaviness in the low end and overlaid by slowly ringing and wailing tones that create an atmosphere of gothic ghostliness. But the song then starts rumbling and slugging, and those high-end keys, ringing and reverberating like a haunted organ, begin to sound exultant.
With a shattering scream, the song then surges. The drums furiously blast; the music both grimly heaves and sears like fire, and it ruinously throbs and viciously seethes, finally collapsing, crawling, and clanging again, slowly burrowing into cemetery earth.
“Mi Alma Se Desvanece” will appear on Ascalapha‘s forthcoming second album, Fata Morgana. It’s the work of Monstro (Guitars, Bass, Synths, Piano, Vocals), with drums performed by Nikola Dusmanic (Serbia), and guest vocals by Wampyric Rites.
https://ascalaphabm.bandcamp.com/track/mi-alma-se-desvanece
SEROTONIN (Netherlands)
Like the immediately preceding song in today’s collection, this last one was more a shot in the dark than the first three choices today. This Gelderland band’s name rings a bell, and I may have caught some glancing blow from their music in the past, but I’m confident I’ve never listened to the entirety of any of their previous releases, which include a trio of albums and a trio of EPs.
I’m very glad I made the blind shot, however, because this new song from their forthcoming fourth album really grabbed me.
“Leidmotiv” sets its own hook right away, with a layered multi-instrument harmony that seems to be a sign of naught but misery and grief ahead. Serotonin don’t leave that grievous hook behind, but they do make it accelerate, just as the double-bass starts thundering and the screams begin erupting.
Very quickly, the song is at typhoon strength, but the drums canter and bound as well as storm, and that opening harmony returns, surrounded by a changing array of swirling and glittering sensations. Gradually, the music morphs and towers, swings and sways, yet grows sad again as the pace slows and a guitar solo rings out its painful sorrow.
There’s a kind of old elegance and folkish fervor that flows and fights its way through the song as its intensity ebbs and flows, and a relentless elaborateness to the instrumentation, but the ever-changing drumming and vibrant bass-lines maintain a visceral appeal too.
Serotonin‘s new album is named Motiv, and it will be out on September 2nd (CD and digital) via Narcoleptica Productions. Two more songs from the album can be streamed at Serotonin‘s Bandcamp page.
https://digitalserotonin.bandcamp.com/album/motiv
https://narcolepticaprod.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/digitalserotonin